1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a signal transmission system implemented with wireless signal transmitters and receivers. More particularly, this invention is related to a signal transmission system for transmitting wireless messages, e.g., a short message (SM), to requesters to provide most current vehicle location and estimated arrival time to a designated location.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A passenger waiting at a bus stop for a bus traveling on fixed route in a city still suffers from the inconvenience that the passenger has no information about where the bus is and when the bus is estimated to arrive at the bus stop. Actually, modern technologies have already developed wireless signal transmissions and data handling capabilities to provide information about the location of a moving vehicle. There are also “navigators” commercially available to estimate the arrival time of a bus to a particular location. However, a passenger still relies on a bus schedule posted on a bus stop. The posted bus schedule provides a rough schedule of when the next bus is coming. However, in reality the arrival time of next bus is often unpredictable. Passengers often have to wait a long period of time for the coming bus without any knowledge about the delay that is caused by the unexpected traffic conditions, engine breakdown or any other unknown reasons. Tremendous wastes of time and resources occur due to such lack of communications.
Similar kinds of wastes often occurs in a metropolitan areas where taxi drivers are circling around city blocks trying to pickup a riders while a person may walk anxiously on a different street looking for a vacant cab and not able to find one. Even though short messages are commonly used on a personal or organizational levels to communicate a wide varieties of data and information, current wireless communication systems still have not provided an effective solution to resolve such difficulties and wastes.
The location of an incoming bus and an estimated arrival time to a designated bus top can be conveniently transmitted as a short message to a passenger using a cellular phone. Short messages have been broadly employed to transmit different kinds of information and data. For example, in Patent Application 20020084888, a system for sending and receiving personal information using a mobile terminal is disclosed. In that patent application, personal information is sent using a short message service with attached identification information. Accordingly, when a receiving mobile terminal receives the short message, the attached identification information allows the receiving mobile terminal to distinguish and process the short message for personal information differently from other general short messages.
In another Patent Application 20050020287, a location-based reference information transmitted through a wireless communication system is disclosed that provides a ‘411xx’ value added service to wireless users. The disclosed ‘411xx’ service allows a mobile user who may be unfamiliar with their current geographic location to obtain quick, accurate, and current information relating to the geographic area, e.g., different services in their current location, stores, libraries, gas stations, etc., via a mobile terminated (MT) short message system (SMS) message. In addition to the traditional ‘4-1-1’ dialed digits, a mobile user would also dial a number (or numbers) representing a feature code for a particular service, e.g., nearby ATMs, or traffic information. Upon receiving a 411xx call, the message service center (MSC) generates an ORREQ/TCAP trigger based on a translation of the requested service represented by the extra ‘xx’ digits.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,738634, Shin discloses a communication system and a method for performing short message services in the communication system. The communication system includes a radio link control (RLC) layer for dividing a data unit having a first length corresponding to short messages transmitted from a higher layer on a down link into data units having second lengths, and for reconstructing data units having third lengths transmitted from a lower layer on an up link into data units having fourth lengths; and a media access control (MAC) layer for multiplexing logical channels assigned for the data units having the second lengths on the down link with different logical channels, performing scheduling for the data units having the second lengths to obtain schedule messages, and demultiplexing transmission channels multiplexed from the lower layer on the up link.
In another Patent Application 20040196866, a method for transmitting and recording schedule using a short message service is disclosed. This method is provided for transmitting a common schedule message to a plurality of mobile terminals using a short message service (SMS) in a mobile terminal having an SMS function and a schedule function, and enabling a mobile terminal receiving the schedule message to record the received schedule message therein as a schedule. If a user selects a schedule transmission for transmitting a schedule registered in the mobile terminal to another mobile terminal, the mobile terminal converts a data format for the schedule into a data format of a schedule-recordable SMS message, and then transmits the schedule-recordable SMS message. To record a schedule, the mobile terminal receiving a schedule message converts a data format of the received SMS message into a format of schedule-recordable data and records the converted data therein as a schedule, if schedule recording is selected by the user.
Other than the applications of short messages (SM) to transmit textual messages, transmission of other types of signal messages including audio or video signals have not bee applied to transmit vehicle location or schedule information.
In another Patent Application 20060164259, a wireless mobile vehicle real-time tracking and notification systems are disclosed. The system features a system and methods for notifying passengers of an approaching vehicle. Utilizing such a system and methods, passengers can remain in a safe, controlled environment, avoiding harsh environmental conditions and excessive waiting times, instead arriving at their pick-up point closer and prior to a vehicle's arrival. More specifically, the patent application relates to a bus notification system wherein passengers are able to know the location and estimated arrival time of the bus several minutes before its arrival at a specified location along the bus route. The patent application also features a system and methods for locating an in-transit vehicle and for providing real-time mapping and monitoring of such in-transit vehicles. The disclosures made in Application 20060164259 are hereby incorporated by reference in this Patent Application. The disclosures made in Application 20060164259 however are often limited by the inaccurate prediction of the time of arrival due to the uncertainty of traffic conditions on the street. Additionally, a mobile phone user is not yet provided with a convent method to receive the notification. The estimated time of arrival (ETA) as that may be posted on houses or bus dispatch time may not be convenient for a mobile phone user.
For these reasons, the above Patent Applications and Patents do not provide effective solution to resolve the difficulties currently encountered by the passengers, especially for passengers using a mobile phone for communications. Therefore an urgent need still exists to implement a signal transmission/reception and processing configuration to make the location and schedule information of a bus or a moving vehicle available to the passengers such that better time management and scheduling can be achieved.